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Monday, February 25, 2013

We are really enjoying this semester of school. We are using Mystery of History Creation to the Greeks and are having so much FUN!!!!! It is from a Biblical perspective, Classical and Chronological, and it also has book lists to enrich and hands on activities which we are enjoying as a family.

Last week we made Kit Kat Stonehenge's (they got gobbled up soon after), and today I made my children mummies after we studied Early Egypt. Love this precious time with my kids and making fun memories.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

This week has been MUCH MUCH better than last week. Our baby girl came back to us. I know that this is just part of her journey, and our journey as a family, and I will treasure in my heart all of it. I feel so blessed to be her mommy. Mia you are so LOVED!!!!!!!

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Exhausted is what I am.................Mia our Amazing and Precious China Blessing took a Huge leap backwards last week. We went from seeing this happy little girl to this angry, and scarred little girl again. Our little Mia started regressing and doing things she did in China holding her head down, twisting her fingers up, yelling at us, very very emotional. Needless to say the past week was hard on top of regular things and trying to figure out what triggered this backstep. As I talked to other adoptive mama's (because I thought I was loosing my mind) they said as Gotcha Day approaches adoptive children can regress and not even know they are doing it. (Wheww (Mia;s Gotcha Day is March 17th) And as this week has come the days are getting better and I can she our little girl coming back again.
These precious babes have had something broken in their lives and even though they are little, they are mighty little warriors. It breaks my heart to think the sadness that overcame Mia last week, and the anger and hurt we saw in her. To know that she knows what abandonment is and the hurt from that and knowing that she already built walls around her heart . I just want to scoop her up and hold her and cry with her. As her mommy I don't want her to hurt and it just breaks my heart. Praying that the Love of her Heavenly Fathers fills her beyond measure and heals the hurt in her precious little heart.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Well peeps we did it and oh I am out of shape. LOL I need to start running again and I have my motivation back. Running for the orphan is good motivation for me. My sweet hubby joined me this time and he could have easily left me in the dust today, but he stayed with me sarcastically I mean encouraging me to push through. I have never trail ran before and it was tougher than my half marathon. All the tree stumps and holes and hills to climb. But I finished and that was all that matters and I am going to run again in April for the orphan.

Friday, February 8, 2013

Needless to say life has been CRAZY busy around here still. I tried to reevaluate our days and it seems to still be busy. I guess this is just where the Lord has us right now. Life with four kiddos and homeschooling, Cub Scouts, Piano, my hubby is is Hazmat School with the fire department and studying for his Sr. Captains test and yes we are crazy we a building too. LOL

Building has been a SLOW SLOW process..........who new. We honestly didn't think we were going to build yet. We have been praying and praying for God to guide us and after 5 offers on houses and being out bid on all of them, we asked God do you want us to build. So this is the direction that we are going. Always praying that we are in the Lord's will and direction. We know one thing we do want our new home to be used for ministry, whether it is sharing our adoption story with people, hosting orphans, loving on the widow, having a small group, or reading God's word and worshipping with our kids. We want it to be all for HIM!!!!!!!! We are still looking for a church home too, which has been so discouraging for us. I know God has the place where we can worship him as a Family. :)

Well we are building on 3 acres (and me being the social butterfly I am am and needing to be near civilization) the three acres is in a neighborhood tucked away but close to everything. My parents so graciously bought two 3 acre tracts and gifted us one which was a HUGE blessing and that is one of the reasons we are able to build. :) Below are some pics of us finishing up the clearing process. The kiddos are in LOVE. My boys are some hunting and fishing outdoors men and so is my hubby so this fits our family great.

Burning the Huge Brush Pile (About 1 acre of cleared trees and brush)

Still burning.........Oh yes we were out there until almost midnight

The Hard workers

Mia loves the camera.......Can you tell

Yes those are Pink John Deere boots............I couldn't resist and she is totally dirty and loving it

The boys showing me their fort in the woods

Austin showing me his fort

Smoky I know but Corbin was jumping up and riding this tree.............I was so worried it was going to come back and pop him in the face. He is my fearless one

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Check out this AWESOME non profit that helps raise money for the orphan everywhere. This run is going to a local foster home who has teenage boys (that need to be adopted), a transition home for boys who have aged out, and a home for the younger sweeties. If you live near Houston you should come run or walk. No one is going to judge your running skills. I haven't trained because I got really sick with a secondary infection for weeks and had no air to run. I am running the 10k along with my husband. :) It may be entertaining to watch me pass out. LOL

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Oh my goodness how fast time goes with your children. It seems just like yesterday we were coming home from the hospital with my sweet Boy as first time parents. This was a hard birthday for me yall, my little man isn't so little anymore. He is growing and learning and making mistakes (which are hard to watch for this mama bear) which are shaping him into the man God wants him to be.

Ethan has a tender and sweet heart. He doesn't like watching people hurt, hungry or fatherless. He prayed Mia home so hard and stood with me in prayer before we started the adoption process that God would make away for us to be able to do adopt. :) I feel honored to be his mommy and love watching him grow (sniff sniff). My hope and prayer for you son is to be the man of God he is calling you to be. Slow to anger and gentle in Spirit. Love you my precious Boy.

We decided to celebrate Ethan Big this year. We had scaled back to family parties, but this was a big birthday for him. :) So we hit it Texas style and went to the Ice Skating Rink...........The theme went along with the 70 degree weather. We had a Hawaiian Luau at The Ice Skating Rink with Family and Friends. So Fun to watch him enjoying his birthday.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Well we have already had a very busy second semester of Homeschooling and we are Loving what we are using for school and the kids are having FUN learning. Yes I said FUN learning and they tell me everyday that they love what we are using. It has taken awhile to find what works for my kids and I think we have found it. So you ask what is our homeschooling gear we use................We are using for Math we use Math U See, For Language Arts I use Queens Language Lessons (Charlotte Mason Style), Cursive for the bigs I use Veritas Cursive (Classical), For Corbin's Handwriting I use Queens Handwriting, (Very Charlotte Mason), For Science we use Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space (Very Classical Lot's of Vocabulary, memory work and hands on fun) This Science is probably my Favorite Science and We have used a lot of different sciences, For History we use Mystery of History and LOVE LOVE (very Classical approach too, on top of this the kids do Spanish with Rosetta Stone everyday and they are really enjoying it, for Bible we are starting in Genesis and following the Bible Reads Mystery of History has laid out.

So we have been studying God's Creation from the beginning both in History and Science. We have been doing a lot of trying to memorize vocabulary and doing a lot of hands on projects, which includes keeping a timeline. So below is just some of the fun things we have been doing.

In Science we started at Creation and have talked about the Earth's Layers, Plate Tectonics, and Caverns. So to make it real for the kids we went to a Real Cave and explored. :)